I Am A Taxi

·        See the interrelationship between globalization, democratization and human rights?

The book I read is I Am A Taxi, this book has some perfect examples for some points from statement above. But not necessarily related to the exact statement or any others. In this book there is multiple times where human rights are shown and how they are being broken and the rights abused.

I Am A Taxi is a book about a young boy that has to go live in prison with his mother and younger sister. The reason they live in jail is because they got accused of smuggling drugs on a bus ride, and the children had nowhere to go so they were granted permission to live in the prison with their parents. The main character of this story is a young boy named Diego; he is a very smart, ambitious boy who has to take care of his younger sister at times and do chores for his mother in the jail. At the prison they have a “taxi” system where boys who are old enough to do chores get paid Boliviano for going around in Cochabamba to deliver mail or buy things for the women in prison who can’t go outside. Diego was one of the little boys who got to be a taxi. Hence the title I Am A Taxi.

Diego had gotten into some trouble at the prison when he couldn’t find his little sister that he was supposed to be watching over, so he tried to sneak around looking for her but he accidently dropped a bouncy ball into an older woman’s pot of soup that she was making to sell. The woman got mad and told the little boy that he and his mother had to pay her enough money for the whole pot. So Diego decided that he had to get away and make money fast so that he and his mother wouldn’t have to go I debt.  Diego’s best friend had a fabulous idea on how he could do that. Diego had no idea what he would have to do but he was sure that Mando (his best friend) wouldn’t lie to him. So one morning a man named Rock came and picked them up so they could go to work. As soon as they got to the site the whole story turns into a nightmare for these young boys.

About half way through the book the boys have to deal with things that are unnatural for anyone to deal with. The worst part about it is that they are little boys having to make decisions that a thirty year old man should make. This part of the story shows how human rights are getting abused by the older men. Diego and Mando get dragged to a drug camp for the work that they thought they were going to make great money doing. But that was not the case Rock made them go through weeks of child labour. He didn’t give the children any say in what was going on. Whenever Diego talked back or even said anything that would intimidate Rock would find different ways to abuse him, “Rock crossed the clearing in two steps and struck Diego across the face.” (page 116) The reason that Rock had smacked him was because Rock had messed up on some math and Diego tried helping him because Diego was a very smart young man. But of course that made Rock feel threatened.

This book shows how human rights were being destroyed because the boys didn’t want to do any of the work but the older men knew how to trick them. Their feet hurt and they weren’t allowed to eat. But the men were drug dealers so they did what they knew how to do best. Give drugs to the kids, the drugs made them feel great and a live but they didn’t last for long, “Could we have something to eat... we will give you something better than food.... he rolled them cigarettes...it will give you the strength of 10 men...” Pages 117& 118. Whenever the boys were tired or hungry they just gave them a smoke. This was unfair to do because they were manipulating the boys.

Those are just a few examples that I could find of how the older men used and abused the young boys. They had threatened them many times with their lives. They would hold guns up to their heads or backs to make them scared so they would do whatever they wanted them to do. I realise that I didn’t answer the question but this book was not related to globalization, or democracy’s.  Nobody helped these boys the only thing in the book that mentioned anything about another part of the world was when they talked about where they would sell the drugs and to who. This book was a wonderful example of a dictatorship because there was one man in charge and everyone took orders from him. Nobody else got say because they just wanted to get paid. 

The book was a good book to read about the misfortunes of others and how in other countries how rights and rules are abused. It was a wonderful piece of writing that taught me a bunch about how not to trust people and that there are some very cruel people in the world. It opened my eyes to what types of people are out there and what I should watch out for and what not to do.

Annotated Bibliography

(Ellis, 2006)

Bibliography

Ellis, D. (2006). I Am A Taxi. Toronto: Second paperback printing.

 This book (I Am A taxi) focuses on the unjust ways in Bolivia; it’s a good story to read if you’re looking for a book that shows how human rights do not always get played into affect. This book helps me with learning about different countries and how people get treated. It was a great book to read when we are learning about globalization. 

My Father

Poetic Devices:

Personification- “the house stands singing”

                         -“coyote’s dreams borne on the dust”

Metaphor         - “Sky long”

                        -“grow sweet”

Reader- first person

In the lyrical poem My Father written by Russell Wallace the “story” is being told through a man’s child. We can tell that the poem is told by the child because in the first stanza of the poem it says, “…my father built his house.” This poem is written about a piece of land that a family’s house was built on, and how beautiful they thought everything on the land was. In the poem there was a few sections with personification one of the sections it says, “the house stands singing.” Another way that there is personification is when the poem states, “coyote’s dreams borne on the dust” It’s referencing that dreams are borne instead of dreamt. Another literary device used in My Father is metaphors. The examples of metaphors that I found were, “Sky long” and “Grow sweet.”

Vocab

Sonnet
Definition: a poem, properly expressive of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes.	My definition: a poem of 14 lines.
Sentence: Class could you please write me a sonnet?

Jargon
Definition: the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group	My definition: the different ways different groups talk.
Sentence: The dentist uses a different type of jargon than the skate boarder.

Anecdote
Definition: a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature.	My definition: short telling of a amusing historical incident
Sentence They told us about anecdote in class today.

Bias
Definition: a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question	My definition: you are more in favor or on one side of an argument
Sentence I was bias for the conservatives.

Wit
Definition: speech or writing showing such perception and expression.	My definition: a type of writing with clever comments.
Sentence: In the play Romeo and Juliet Romeo has such wit.

Tragic FLaw
Definition:the character defect that causes  the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy;  hamartia.	My definition: something thats horrible that happens to a character in writing.
Sentence:  Romeo and Juliet is a story based on tragic flaw.

Hubris
Definition: excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.	My definition: someone who is full of themselves.
Sentence: See that little lady right there? She is full of Hubris!

Emergent issue

Bulletin board info...

Taxing

Liberal- Michael Ignatieff has clearly stated he will not raise the GST: “And so we’ve got to be very clear in the next election. We are not going to increase the tax burden on the Canadian family. It’s not going to happen. Don’t believe what they tell you. Don’t believe what they say.”(Michael Ignatieff, speech to the Liberal Caucus, January 25, 2011)

Conservative- Stephen Harper is committed to keeping taxes low for Canadian consumers, and to completing our economic recovery.  He's cut taxes more than 120 times, saving the average Canadian family $3,000 a year.

Green-The Green Party believes in reforming our tax system to make it fairer and more in tune with Canadians’ desire for a healthy environment, a sustainable economy and a vibrant, caring society. It makes no sense to subsidize the wealthiest corporations on Earth

NDP- We will reduce the small business tax rate from 11 per cent to nine per cent to support a sector of our economy that creates nearly half of all new jobs in Canada.

Education

Liberal- Public schools are the best way to educate students.  Vouchers take money away from public schools.  Government should focus additional funds on existing public schools, raising teacher salaries and reducing class size

Conservative- School vouchers create competiton and therefore encourage schools to improve performance.Vouchers will give all parents the right to choose good schools for their children, not just those who can afford private schools.

Green-Work with provinces and higher learning institutions to reduce post-secondary tuitions.Boost participation in cooperative education programs and apprenticeships.Encourage more hands-on learning in our post-secondary education system.Harmonize government programs such as the Millennium Scholarship Fund to provide a single need-based grant program to reduce student debt.

NDP- We will make post-secondary education more affordable by directly attacking skyrocketing tuition costs with a designated $800 million transfer to the provinces and territories to lower tuition fees, as per the NDP’s Post Secondary Education Act;We will increase the funding in the Canada Student Grants Program by $200 million a year, targeting accessibility for Aboriginal, disabled and low-income students, in particular; We will raise the education tax credit from $4,800 per year to

$5,760 per year to help with increasing education costs.

comparison

The mood of a story or movie is the atmosphere and feeling of the location and how the characters are feeling in the specific version of the script. For example we watched a parody of Romeo and Juliet, they used the script that the play had but they made the mood in more modern of a scene. At the beginning of the movie it started at a gas station instead of on the street, the Montague’s family was more of a crazy free spirits. They had pink hair and their shirts were just loose and were always happy. The Capulet’s on the other hand seemed more like they were macho men with greased back hair and leather clothes. In the movie the Montague’s seemed as though they were afraid when the Capulet’s came to fight them and they would run away.  But in the play the Montague’s seemed like they dressed more respectful and more stylish. The Montague’s didn’t dress like they were greasers in the play either they dressed how people did in the time this play was written with more puffy dresses and that kind of style. The mood changes everything about the written material. It can make you think that Romeo and Juliet are dare devils or sweet little children inlove.